I passed. It wasn’t pretty and it was certainly not my best performance, but I passed my oral comprehensive exam. I am not the kind of person who typically gets nervous; In fact there are only two times in my life that I recall truly being nervous and this was one of them. The other was a similar situation—when I was going in for Engineering Duty Officer Qualification exam.
My committee was helpful, they were not intimidating, but I was still nervous. Even the simple things that I know did not come easily. But I was able to satisfy them, apparently.
The problem, I think, is that I was not the expert in the room then. Usually in situations like that I am the most knowledgeable person on the subject matter at hand. Either I’ve written it, designed it, or worked on it so long that I know it better than anyone. When someone asks me a question I know I can answer it and I know they want to know the answer. In my orals I was not the expert, my committee members were. And they did not ask questions so that I could educate them; they were asking to see if I could give them the answer they wanted.
Once the Q & A was over, we discussed my dissertation topic. It still has some issues and I still have my concerns. Their comments were helpful but I was not surprised by what they said. I share their concerns and I feel better knowing that they see anything out there that might trip me up that I didn’t see myself or that I have not spoken with them about previously.
Feels good to be on this side of the exam.
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